A Man and a Woman eBook

“No, I think a woman who loves a man could scarcely
bear that he had ever been bound to another still
living, or even dead.”

“But——­”

“No. It is not right.”

It is not always that even he who is right and strong
in the consciousness of it, and resolute toward the
end he is seeking may express himself as he would
in protest against the object yielding to what is
in the social world, though it be wrong. Grant
Harlson looked down upon the slender figure and into
the earnest face and was helpless for the time.
Yet he was fixed of mind.

He was very tender with her, but this was not a man
to give up easily what was his. He pleaded with
her further, but in vain. She would not yield.

And so the weeks passed, with the problem yet unsolved.
They were still much together, for she could not
turn him away, and he would not stay away. There
was more pleading on his part, and more anger sometimes.
It seemed to him absurd that lives should be blighted
because of a legend.

And she was unhappy, and, it may be, gradually attaining
to broader views and moral bravery. Jean Cornish
was courageous, but there was the legend.

And suddenly all was changed, the problem finding
a solution not expected. Grant Harlson’s
wife was, as has been said, a woman of reason and
of force, and she had her own life, with its objects.
She chafed under the bond which still connected her
with Harlson, and she broke it cleanly. It was
she, not he, who sought divorce, and the simple logical
ground of incompatibility of temperament was all that
was required, in the State where she resided.
There was no defense. Grant Harlson became free,
and Jean Cornish, since his freedom came in this way,
promised, at last, to become his wife.

CHAPTER XX.

Twofools.

They loved. They were to marry, but there were
the conventionalities to be observed, and they could
not be wed at once. That was understood by Grant
Harlson, though he chafed at it a little.

There were certain months to be passed before the
two would be as one completely, and those months were
very sweet months to the twain. They were much
together, this man and woman who were plighted to each
other, for why should they not be, since they were
to become man and wife, and since neither was so happy
under other circumstances? They were not what
a profound, unsentimental person would consider models
of common-sense, but they were not depending upon
the opinions of profound, unsentimental persons for
anything in particular; so this did not affect them.